New Developments in Environmental and Energy Technologies

This book presents the selected papers from the 2023 5^th International Conference on Environmental Sciences and Renewable Energy (ESRE 2023), which was held as a hybrid conference during June 19–21, 2023, in Vienna, Austria. The book includes first-rate, original research on various aspects of environmental sciences and renewable energy, offering perspectives from industrial and research communities to address current challenges in related fields. In the field of environmental science, wastewater and sludge treatment, air pollution and control, global environmental change, and ecosystems management are discussed. In the area of renewable energy, several hot topics are presented including solar energy, energy conservation and recovery, and hydrogen generation and application. This book supports the transfer of vital knowledge to next-generation researchers, students, and practitioners in academia and industry.

The editors were actively involved in the 2023 5th International Conference on Environment Sciences and Renewable Energy (ESRE) as conference and session chairpersons and as oral research presenters. They have published over 550 peer-reviewed papers, with more than 50;000 citations. Their cumulative h-factor exceeds 135.

Jan Baeyens studied nuclear engineering (Brussels, Belgium) and chemical engineering (Leuven, Belgium). He obtained his Ph.D. at the Postgraduate School of Powder Technology, the University of Bradford (U.K.). He was employed in engineering divisions of various companies (1975–1988) and became a part-time professor at the University of Leuven while also working as a process and project consultant in Europe and overseas.

 He joined the University of Antwerp as a full professor (2005–2007) and was the chair holder of the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and at the University of Warwick (U.K.) (2007–2013). Since October 2011, he has been a visiting professor at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) and a principal investigator at the Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Soft Matter Science and Engineering with a research focus in the field of environmental science and renewable energy. He co-supervises Ph.D. and M.Eng. research at KU Leuven and at BUCT and is a regular speaker at international congresses. He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers in international journals, has authored and edited 14 books, and is a guest editor for Elsevier journals. He serves as a subject editor or editorial board member of a number of journals including Renewable Enery, Green Energy and Green Chemicals, Chemical Engineering Journal; Energies, Standards, Frontiers in Chemical Science and Engineering and Frontiers in Energy Efficiency.

Raf Dewil studied chemical engineering (Leuven, Belgium) and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Antwerp. He is a full professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of KU Leuven anda visiting professor at the Engineering Science Department of the University of Oxford. Prof. Dewil’s research interests are mainly in the field of resource recovery and the degradation of hazardous organic components in water and wastewater. In water and wastewater treatment his focus is on the application of photochemical and electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), including the application of novel photo- and electrocatalytic materials. He has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed papers in top international journals in these fields and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Environmental Management. He also serves as an editorial board member of various international journals such as Chemical Engineering Journal and Renewable Energy.

 Yimin Deng completed her 4-year-long bachelor’s course in chemical engineering and technology at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT). She obtained her master’s degree in fluid engineering at the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Toulouse (INSA-Toulouse University) and received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the Faculty of Engineering Technology, KU Leuven. She has published 50 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and presented her research at international conferences. Her main research focus is on scale-up strategies for solar thermo-chemical and catalytic reactors, including their computational fluid dynamics simulations. She specialises in the production of "green" hydrogen, the application of concentrated solar energy, and carbon capture storage and utilization technologies.

Barbara Rossi studied civil engineering in Belgium. After receiving the Arcelor Prize (2003) for her master’s thesis, she joined the National Fund for Scientific Research as a doctorate fellow and completed her Ph.D. on the structural behaviour of stainless steel profiles in 2009 in collaboration with the University of Sydney and Imperial College London. After her post-doctoral research she became a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven (2013). Between 2013 and 2019, her team’s research projects led to the amendments of the Eurocodes on the stability of stainless steel structures and fatigue behaviour of hot-dip galvanised steel structures. In 2019, she joined the University of Oxford and expanded her core research activities towards the study of hybrid structures in harsh environments and structures obtained via additive manufacturing. Over the past 10 years, she has become a recognised expert in life-cycle analysis and sustainability applied to the construction sector, for which she was awarded the Carbon Champion title in 2021 from the Institution of Civil Engineers.